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iPhone 4S

Last November, the world was still worried about Greece and the possibility of the European debt crisis spilling over into the U.S. economy and choking off the fragile recovery. Steve Jobs had just died a month earlier and shares of the company he founded had tumbled 17% on heavy volume since their peak. Apple stock had sprinted 33% higher from June to October. But Tim Cook was now in charge and maybe the pitch-perfect design and utter genius of the founder had gone away with Jobs.

Sounded awful. Time to sell, right?

You'd probably want to throw a steaming hot pizza in your broker's face if he got you out of Apple right after Thanksgiving last year. From $363 on November 25, 2011 to its intraday high of $644 on April 10, Apple stock moved higher by 77%. Euphoria was back in a big way, helped by a blowout earnings report on January 24 that sent the stock 6.2% higher the next day.

Apple sold off going into that report just as it has in the days leading up to its upcoming January-March report due out on Tuesday, April 24. It fell 2.46% on Friday, capping off a drop of 11% from its high 10 days ago, resting now just below its 50-day moving average. It's priced at a moderate 12.9 times expected 2012 earnings, which should grow 60% from last year, according to analysts' average 2012 EPS estimate.

Even if you don't own Apple directly, with $534 billion in market capitalization, it makes up a big chunk of the market indexes and major ETFs: 4.5% of the SPY and 18.2% of the QQQ. Check out the Market Blaster video above to see why Apple is as important to the U.S. now as General Motors was 60 years ago.

Separately, we look at why Steve Ballmer has good reason to jump around and get sweaty after Microsoft's fat quarter. Also, learn about a few more names reporting next week, including Baidu.com, sharing the limelight with Apple on Tuesday. Amazon.com comes out with its quarterly results on Thursday. Could Bezos' outfit be setting up to please the Street, or inflict more pain on shareholders with tales of low-margin woe?